Bauschinger Effect Design Procedures for Autofrettaged Tubes Including Material Removal and Sachs’ Method

Abstract

Autofrettage is used to introduce advantageous residual stresses into pressure vessels and to enhance their fatigue lifetimes. The Bauschinger effect serves to reduce the yield strength in compression as a result of prior tensile plastic overload and can produce lower compressive residual hoop stresses near the bore than are predicted by “ideal” autofrettage solutions (elastic/perfectly plastic without Bauschinger effect). A complete analysis procedure is presented which encompasses representation of elastic-plastic uniaxial loading material behavior and of reverse-loading material behavior as a function of plastic strain during loading. Such data are then combined with some yield criterion to accurately predict elastic-plastic residual stress fields within an autofrettaged thick cylinder. Pressure for subsequent reyielding of the tube is calculated. The numerical procedure is further used to determine residual stress fields after removal of material from inside diameter (i.d.) and/or outside diameter (o.d.), including the effects of any further plasticity. A specific material removal sequence is recommended. It is shown that Sachs’ experimental method, which involves removing material from the i.d., may very significantly overestimate autofrettage residual stresses near the bore. Stress ranges and stress intensity factors for cracks within such stress fields are calculated together with the associated fatigue lifetimes as such cracks propagate under cyclic pressurization. The loss of fatigue lifetime resulting from the Bauschinger effect is shown to be extremely significant.